I wonder if they'll reference Marlena's twin sister Samantha, who was mentally ill, since she was Claire's great aunt? She kidnapped Marlena and assumed her identity while Marlena was locked up (and drugged) in the sanitarium as Samantha. She was eventually caught, sent away to a mental facility and came back a few years later as a normal person and had a loving/supportive relationship with Marlena.
Sorry, but for me, relative or not I don't think I could ever trust someone that tried to set me and others on fire.
Just remembered that John's parents weren't playing with full decks, either. Between Yo Daddy and crazy Maude Robicheaux, it's a miracle that John isn't bat-crap crazy. So some of that probably trickled down through the DNA tree to Claire, too.
She is, on Shawn-D's side, as Hope and Jennifer are cousins. But it appears as though Abby's mental illness came from Laura's side of the family. Laura had a mental breakdown and her mother, Carrie Spencer, was a schizophrenic and committed suicide. There was a whole storyline when Jennifer was a teenager about being afraid of suffering mental illness like her mother and grandmother.
As of the last rewrite, John's parents were Timothy Robicheaux, a/k/a Yo Ling, and Maude Robicheaux. Until/unless they decide to go with another rewrite, those are his last parents of record.
